Federal Protections Against National Origin Discrimination

Issued October 2000

INTRODUCTION

Federal laws prohibit discrimination based on a person's national origin, race, color, religion,
disability, sex, and familial status. Laws prohibiting national origin discrimination make it
illegal to discriminate because of a person's birthplace, ancestry, culture or language. This means
people cannot be denied equal opportunity because they or their family are from another country,
because they have a name or accent associated with a national origin group, because they
participate in certain customs associated with a national origin group, or because they are married
to or associate with people of a certain national origin.

The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division is concerned that national origin
discrimination may go unreported in the United States because victims of discrimination do not
know their legal rights, or may be afraid to complain to the government. To address this
problem, the Civil Rights Division has established a National Origin Working Group to help
citizens and immigrants better understand and exercise their legal rights. If you think you, or
someone you know, has been discriminated against because of national origin and want to learn
more about exercising your legal rights, you should read this brochure.

This brochure explains the laws prohibiting national origin discrimination and provides some
examples. You may find additional information about the Civil Rights Division and its Sections
on the internet at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt. You may contact the Division to report complaints
of discrimination as explained below.

KNOWING YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice enforces federal laws that prohibit
discrimination in:

The Division also enforces laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability, protects
the civil rights of persons who are institutionalized in certain state or local facilities, and
prosecutes crimes that are motivated by a crime victim's race, color, or national origin.

In some cases, the Division may only become involved if there is a "pattern or practice" of
discrimination. A "pattern or practice" generally means that there is more than a single incident
of discrimination, and that there is a policy or repeated conduct that is discriminatory.

* A young man of South Asian descent is assaulted as he leaves a concert at a nightclub. The
assailant, a member of a skinhead group, yells racial epithets as he beats the victim unconscious
in the club's parking lot with fists and a pipe.

* At Ku Klux Klan meetings, a Klansman tells other members that Mexicans and Puerto Ricans
should go "back where they came from." They burn a cross in the front yard of a young
Hispanic couple in order to frighten them and force them to leave the neighborhood. Before
burning the cross, the defendant displays a gun and gives one of his friends another gun in case
the victims try to stop them.

* An American company recruits workers in a small Mexican town, promising them good work
at high pay. The company smuggles the Mexicans to the United States in an empty tanker truck.
When they finally arrive in the U.S., the workers are threatened, told that if they attempt to leave
their factory they will be killed.

The Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division prosecutes people who are accused of using
force or violence to interfere with a person's federally protected rights because of that person's
national origin. These rights include areas such as housing, employment, education, or use of
public facilities. You can reach the Criminal Section at (202) 514-3204 or write to:

* An HMO that enrolls Medicaid patients tells a Mexican American woman with cerebral palsy
to come back another day for an appointment while it provides immediate assistance to others.

This example may be a violation of federal laws that prohibit discrimination because of
disability as well as laws that prohibit discrimination because of national origin. If you believe
you have been discriminated against because you have a disability you may contact the Disability
Rights Section at (800) 514-0301 (voice) or 800-514-0383 (TTY). You may also write to:

* A child has difficulty speaking English, but her school does not provide her with the necessary
assistance to help her learn English and other subjects.

* A majority Haitian school does not offer honors classes. Other schools in the district that do
not have many Haitian students offer both honors and advanced placement courses.

These examples may be violations of federal law, which prohibits discrimination in education
because of a person's national origin. The Division's Educational Opportunities Section enforces
these laws in elementary and secondary schools as well as public colleges and universities. The
Education Section's work addresses discrimination in all aspects of education, including
assignment of students to schools and classes, transportation of students, hiring and placement of
faculty and administrators, distribution of school resources, and provision of educational
programs that assist limited English speaking students in learning English.

To file a complaint or for more information, contact the Education Section at (202) 514-4092,
or write to:

* A transit worker's supervisor makes frequent racial epithets against the worker because his
family is from Iran. Last week, the boss put up a fake sign on the bulletin board telling everyone
not to trust the worker because he is a terrorist.

* A woman who immigrated from Russia applies for a job as an accountant. The employer
turns her down because she speaks with an accent even though she is able to perform the job
requirements.

* A food processing company requires applicants who appear or sound foreign to show work
authorization documents before allowing them to complete an employment application while
native born Caucasian applicants are not required to show any documents before completing
employment applications. Moreover, the documents of the ethnic employees are more closely
scrutinized and more often rejected than the same types of documents shown by native born
Caucasian employees.

These examples may be violations of the law that prohibits discrimination against an
employee or job applicant because of his or her national origin. This means an employer cannot
discipline, harass, fire, refuse to hire or promote a person because of his or her national origin.

If you believe an employer, labor organization or employment agency has discriminated against
you because of your national origin, contact:

In addition, an employer may violate federal law by requiring specific work authorization
documents, such as a green card, or rejecting such documents only from applicants of certain
national origins. For more information or to file a charge, contact the Division's Office of
Special Counsel at the above address or toll-free number.

* A Native Hawaiian family is looking for an apartment. They are told by the rental agent that
no apartments are available, even though apartments are available and are shown to white
applicants.

* A realtor shows a Latino family houses only in Latino neighborhoods and refuses to show the
family houses in white neighborhoods.

These examples may be violations of the federal Fair Housing Act. That law prohibits
discrimination because of national origin, race, color, sex, religion, disability, or familial status
(presence of children under 18) in housing. Individual complaints of discrimination may be
reported to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) at (800) 669-9777. If
you believe there is a pattern or practice of discrimination, contact the Division's Housing and
Civil Enforcement Section at (202) 514-4713.

* A Latina woman is charged a higher interest rate and fees than white male customers who
have similar financial histories and apply for the same type of loan.

This example may be a violation of federal laws that prohibit discrimination in lending
because of national origin, race, color, sex, religion, disability and marital status or because any
of a person's income comes from public assistance. If you believe you have been denied a loan
because of your national origin or other protected reason, you may ask the lender for an
explanation in writing of why your application was denied.

If the loan is for a home mortgage, home improvement, or other housing-related reasons, you
may file a complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development at (800) 669-9777. If the loan is for purposes other than housing (such as a car loan), you may file a
complaint either with the Division's Housing and Civil Enforcement Section or with the lender's
regulatory agency. If your experience was part of a pattern or practice of discrimination you may
also call the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section at (202) 514-4713, to obtain more
information about your rights or to file a complaint.

* In a restaurant, a group of Asian Americans waits for over an hour to be served, while white
and Latino customers receive prompt service.

* Haitian American visitors to a hotel are told they must pay in cash rather than by credit card,
are charged higher rates than other customers, and are not provided with the same amenities,
such as towels and soap.

These examples may be violations of federal laws that prohibit discrimination because of
national origin, race, color, or religion in places of public accommodation. Public
accommodations include hotels, restaurants, and places of entertainment. If you believe you
have been denied access to or equal enjoyment of a public accommodation where there is a
pattern or practice of discrimination, contact the Housing and Civil Enforcement Section at (202)
514-4713. You may also write to:

* Police officers constantly pull over cars driven by Latinos, for certain traffic violations, but
rarely pull over white drivers for the same violations.

* A police officer questioning a man of Vietnamese origin on the street gets angry when the man
is unable to answer his questions because he does not speak English. The Officer arrests the
man for disorderly conduct.

These examples may be violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States
Constitution. They may also be violations of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of
1968. That law prohibits discrimination because of national origin, race, color, religion, or sex
by a police department that gets federal funds through the U.S. Department of Justice. They may
also violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by law
enforcement agencies that receive any federal financial assistance, including asset forfeiture
property.

Complaints of individual discrimination may also be filed with the Office of Justice
Programs at Office for Civil Rights, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice,
Washington, D.C. 20531, or contact Office of Justice Programs at (202) 307-0690.

The Special Litigation Section investigates and litigates complaints that a police department
has a pattern or practice of discriminating on the basis of national origin. To file a complaint,
contact the Special Litigation Section at (202) 514-6255 or write to:

* A jail will not translate disciplinary hearings for detainees who do not speak English.

* A state's psychiatric hospital has no means of providing treatment for people who do not
speak English.

These examples may be violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States
Constitution. The Special Litigation Section enforces the constitutional rights of people held in
state or local government institutions, such as prisons, jails, juvenile correctional facilities,
mental health facilities, developmental disability or mental retardation facilities, and nursing
homes. If you are a resident of any such facility and you believe there is a pattern or practice of
discrimination based on your national origin, contact the Special Litigation Section at (202) 514-6255. You may also write to:

* A local social services agency does not provide information or job training in Korean even
though one quarter of local residents speak only Korean.

* A hospital near the Texas/Mexico border dresses its security officers in clothes that look like
INS uniforms to scare Latinos away from the emergency room. Latino patients are told to bring
their own translators before they can see a doctor.

These examples may be violations of federal laws that prohibit discrimination because of
national origin, race or color by recipients of federal funds. If you believe you have been
discriminated against by a state or local government agency or an organization that receives
funds from the federal government, you may file a complaint with the Division's Coordination
and Review Section at (888) 848-5306. You may also write to:

* Despite requests from voters in a large Spanish-speaking community, election officials refuse
to provide election materials, including registration forms and sample ballots, in Spanish or to
allow Spanish speakers to bring translators into the voting booth.

* A polling official requires a dark-skinned voter, who speaks with a foreign accent and has an
unfamiliar last name, to provide proof of American citizenship, but does not require proof of
citizenship from white voters.

The election officials' conduct may violate the federal laws prohibiting voting discrimination.
The Voting Rights Acts do not specifically prohibit national origin discrimination. However,
provisions of the Acts make it illegal to limit or deny the right to vote of any citizen not only
because of race or color, but also because of membership in a language minority group. In
addition, the Acts also require in certain jurisdictions that election materials and assistance be
provided in languages other than English.

Additionally, Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act, allows voters, who need help because of
blindness, disability or because they cannot read or write, to bring someone (other than an
employer or union representative) to help. This means that a voter who needs help reading the
ballot in English can bring a friend or family member to translate. In some places, election
officials must provide information, such as voter registration and the ballot, in certain
language(s) other than English. This can include interpreters to help voters vote.

If you believe that you have been discriminated against in voting or denied assistance in
casting your ballot, you may contact the Division's Voting Section at (800) 253-3931. You may
also write to: